THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 14784, 27 January 1912, Page 10

THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

THE PROBLEM LN NIGERIA. " Nowhere else in tropical or sub-tropi-cal Africa are the British administrators faced, at least on a huge scale, with a Mohammedan population already to Ik: counted in millions." says Mr E. D. Morel (the hero of the Congo agitation) in his recently-published and powerfully-written work cm ' Nigeria : Its Peoples and Pro blcms,' and tho question he asks is: "Is it safe to allow Christian missionaries to inflame the anger of the .Mohammedans?" about this missionary effort—inwardly, I mean. All the African world is black —I<> wit, black with sin, black with lust, black with cruelty, and there is its besetting sin. It is alien." It preaches an alien (lod: a white tied. an<l not a black Cod. The God that is imported here has nothing African about liini. How can He appeal to Africa.'.' 1 saw a week ago, in an Knglish paper, that there is to be a crusade against Islam in Nigeria. Emissaries are to .come out and check this poisonous growth. That, too. is very strange to read . . . out here, as one listeus to the call to Cod in the evening and in the morning pealing out to the stars. Theso people are worshipping the Cod of Africa. It seems that they ought to worship the Cod of Europe; and_ yet there is more evidence of spiritual influence out here than in our groat congested cities. With the cry of the African priest the faithful bows his body to the earth out here. The day before I left England 1 heard the bells ringing out in an old cathedral city. Their note was both beautiful and sad*. It was a spacious building, arched and vaulted, inoble in proportions. It might- easily have held 700 worshippers. Yet when the bells had ceased to riiej there were less tliii.lt a dozen worshippers within." Mr Morel [lays a line tribute to the essential morals of the Nigerians. " I have yet t-o see outside our cantoiunents —where the wastrel.-, drift—a single immodest gesture on the part of man wind woman. Humanity which is of Nature is, as Nature herself, moral. There is no immodesty in nakedness which knows not that it is naked. . . . Break up the family life of Africa, tmde.nnino the home, weaken social ties, subvert African authority over Africans, and you dig tho grave of African morality. It is easy—nothing is easier—and it may ho accomplished with the best intentions, the worthiest motives, the most abnormal ignorance of doing harm. Preserve, these things, strengthen them, and yon .saleguard - the decencies and refinements of African life." THE CONFLSSIONAL. Mr W. Joynson-Eliekson. M.P., was taken to task 'by the Catholic Federation of .Manchester arid .Salford for having, dnring a speech delivered at. the l-'reetrade Hull at Manchester in November last, stated, inter alia, that "behind the vestments of the Mass is the confessional, ami behind the confessional is the destruction of home life." lie was asked if, in the passage referred to, he was alluding to the sacrament of penance, which is one of the most important instiiiifions ot the Catholic Church.; and if he were not, it was incumbent on him to explain that- ho was referring to the confessional as practised by some other Church. In a letter to Canon Sharrock. of .Manchester, the hoit. ireuileman wrote : "" My speech had mothing whatever to do with your Church <>r the confessional in it. I understand that the sacra merit of penance is part ami pitrcel of the regular organisation and religion, but in our Cino-.-h it is irregular and undesirable, and the met ting 1 addressed was composed entirely of members of my own Church." THE PANOKB, OK SOCIALIST SUNDAY SCI1001>:. Lord Aticaster. president- of the Children's Non-Socialist League, occupied the chair at n well-attended public meeting on behalf of the league which was held recently iit Caxton Hall. Westminster. He said that that was their first public meeting. The, objects of the league were twofold —first, to make known the l-a.t that- the Socialist Sunday schools were founded to teani children t'ocLilisui ;iud I'm the negation ol' all religious beliefs: and. set-otidlv, t-o form branches in each locality where- such schools existed, anil to arouse established organisations- to the danger in their midst, with a view to obtaining their support and co-operation to combat the evil. They also intended to start another branch for tho training of teachers and missionaries well equipped fo deal with socialism and agiicKtic.ism. Tliey hoped to enlist the sympathy of people of ..ill religious denominations. Lord Helmsley, M.P., said tir.it socialism ami religion were mutmlly antagonistic. One or the uims of the Socialists was to undermine, and destroy Christianity in the minds of the rising generation, hi these Socialist Sunday sciwols they tried to bring up children without any idea of a God"or the possibility of a future life, roli"ion being derided as a mockery and a superstition. It was nothing siwrt of a crime to allow children to be brought up without religion or any thought of the spiritual sido of their natures, and they must provide- an antidote for the poison which was hoing instilled into the minds of the children against those wlio were, in a more fortu«atc position than themselves. Tho children should at least be givon an opportunity of knowing the great truths of religion. Mrs St. Clare Norriss, organising director of tho league, said that thero were, now 120 Socialist Sunday schools in the country, with a membership of 7.C00 scholars. Owin" 1 to the work which the league was doing the Socialist Sunday school at Walworth had been clcied. Sir Charles D. Rose, M.P., moved, and Mr Raymond Greene, M.P., .seconded, a resolution, expressing the opinion -that the sphere of operations of tho league should now be> extended, and that the time hud arrived vvlieii all tJi-ese who believed m the teaching of the Bible should combine .vainst the'teaching of Socialistic nubelici. c 'l'b is yi as-earned-!- uiiuniaiousiy.

NB TEMERE. The Anglican Primate of all Cannula in his diocesan address at Christmas made special reference to tho Panal decree which has crcat.d considerable stir in religious circles in that country. The Archbishop said that they could not pass over in silence an utterance which, "although it purports to bo merely a domestic rcirulation of the Bomnn Catholic Church, has bsen used by llomwi Catholic priests in such a way as to imperil thj sanctitv anl security of "homo life. In face of this undeniable fact, and confronted by the existence of doubts and uncertainties raised thereby, it has seemed good to the (>'-noral Synod to join in the common movement now afoot for obtaining, fls far as jiossible. one. uniform marriage Inn- for the whole Dominion. together with such other legislation as may be necessary to secure the civil rights of duly married persons anil their offspring. and to afford such persons due protection aaainst- the aspersions of individuals and (he ecclesiastical rules of anv religious body. In commending this action to -our sympathetic inter.-ct and co-operation, we not only admit, but allirm the right of anv ecclesiastical body, or religious body, to make and enforce its own regulations respecting marriage ricrhts, and to prescribe such legitimate penalties (the supreme jxmalty being excommunication) as it may deem right and wise under the circumstances, p.ut we assert the validity of nil marriages solemnised by the mutual consent of (he- parties concerned, before a competent oflicer in the presence of wit-nc-ssos. there being no impediment of precontract, anlnitv, or consanguinity between the, contracting parties, and we maintain that, once consummated, such marriages are indissoluble." Dr Duval (ex-Moderator of the Presbyterian Synod of Canada) was even more emphatic in his condemnation of the Papal decree, his outburst being primarily occasioned bv a statement by "Father Comeau. of Winnipeg. The doctor said :" We find here first, not simply a despisin" of Piotestnnt marriage, which we could pass with dienity, but. secondly, ther? is a despising of the'law of the state which aufhurm-s the marriage. Thirdly, it implies that_ the Protestant wife has no rights of conscience which the Boman Catholic need respect. Fourthly, in this the Itomau Church outracrs the natural law and the natural ri'dits of man- Tiie common law which gives the protection of a 'common la,-.-wife' is better than such church law. The lower animal instinct teaches a better cthh: when it influences the noble male b ast to stand bv tho mother in suppoit of the young. But, further, this priest says that this truant- husband, after leavimr his Protestant wife, may take up what seems to common judgment tin adulterous r. lation to another woman, mid by and bv go to the Tiriest- and get a see rot" marriage, which shall l>e good in 'the eves of Cod and the Church.''"" To the people of natural moral instint'.s this is a blasphemous defamation of Cod. a. putting of an arbitrary authority of the papal system in the place of the e.;ii'rit of God. to the cursinir of humanity." l')r Duval closes with an appeai "to our more intelligent Bont.wi Catholic fellowcitizens" airains't submitting to a- ioachim,' liiat in' itself is morally <!"£.'r.'Hling, and may :>pen fia? way toi coine:eneoles> erealures to degrade' "Pi'ot-stant women and then leaves them to their fate.

Archbishop M'Ncil. however, denied the correct:k'ss of the interpretation of the decree, and added : "' 1 have had to deal with these cases, au<l I think I know what the law of the Church k-.. If a Catholic and a Protestant go to a Protestant min-ir-ter to \\y married, it is not the priest's dutv to advise .-cparation. On the contrarv. he tries ;o validate the inaTriagc. elfort- is to inive-the parties come to hint and renew tho marriage contract. If the Protestant patty r : fuse to come, and the Catholic party is "repentant,'the priest applies to his bishop for it Miocial dispensation in virtue of which tiie marrbge he conies valid hi the Catholic Church. Fat he.Coiixv.u appears nc/t to be aware of the existence of this s«-o:;d step in the ptwess, which makes me doubt- the <:ccuracy of Ihe interview attributed to him In any case there is i-nllv no grotmd for the seveiv worde uxkl by Dr Duval." GLEANINGS. Dr Islev. the Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmiimham since 1808. was in December at St. James's Cathedral in that city instituted Archbishop of Birmingham with impr<v.-ive ceremony.- Such ;i spect-ucle has been seen in England only once before .luring the last 350" years, and that was when ""the late Archbishop Vaughan was invested with the sacred pallium of Archbishop Stomir in London. Add nwing the students of Toronto University the other day Dr John 11. Mott said'that acokwsa! n ud unpreeedented r<>s]M>nsibi.lity rosUxl on the youth of the present, generation. Non-Christian influences had lost their hold on the Orient, which hod now heoome plastic, and ready fo respond te> Christian missionaiy effort. He convincingly urged the call of this opportunity upon the young men of to-day.